


Trick Your Treat

by mckinlily



Series: These Bonds We Build [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Big Brother Shiro (Voltron), Foster Care AU, Found Family, Gen, Halloween, Pranks, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Trick or Treating, except in this he's eighteen and Trying His Best, the inevitable chaos when you get all the paladins together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:42:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27307192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mckinlily/pseuds/mckinlily
Summary: Halloween is the paladins' favorite holiday, and they are beyond excited. But when a neighbor criticizes their involvement in trick or treating, they're crushed. Will they not be able to go?Fortunately, Shiro has a plan.Takes place their first year in Boston.
Relationships: Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro
Series: These Bonds We Build [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1882813
Comments: 6
Kudos: 56





	Trick Your Treat

**Author's Note:**

> No beta we post our typos like men.

Shiro leaned against the wall of the bus, intending to use the brief trip to soak in the fall colors. Fall in Boston was like nothing Shiro had seen before—brilliant red and orange, on the trees and coating the ground, seemingly endless color. Falls in Arizona hadn’t been like this. Then again, Arizona hardly had fall at all. Or seasons for that matter.

Just another reason why this year was better than last year. Shiro adjusted the straps of his backpack on his shoulders, too stubborn to sit down when there was so much to _see._

And then his phone buzzed.

**From: The Phone**

_shiro_

Shiro frowned. That’s was hardly descriptive. Maybe Lance just wanted to share some memes? But then Lance normally used about five more emojis…

**From: The Phone**

_shiro_

_SHIRO_

_MAKE IT STOP SHIRO_

Oh no. That was definitely Keith.

**From: Big Brother Knows All**

_?_

**From: The Phone**

_THEY WON’T STOP_

_Why did you hide my hunting knife???_

**From: Big Brother Knows All**

_Because you can’t be trusted with it._

_Obviously_

_What’s going on?_

**From: The Phone**

_UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH_

**From: Big Brother Knows All**

_Keith_

_Do not kill anyone. Do not injure anyone. Do not do anything that could possibly end with you in jail._

_The bail fund is already low after we had to free Lance and Pidge from Target_

_What’s up?_

**From: The Phone**

_I’M GOING INSANE IS WHAT’S UP_

**From: Big Brother Knows All**

_Do you know you’re almost impossible to have a conversation with sometimes?_

**From: The Phone**

_That’s it. I’m going outside_

Shiro sighed and knocked his head against the glass. So much for a peaceful fall afternoon.

Shiro supposed he should count himself lucky that when he made it home, Keith was only sulking on the steps of their apartment building, scowling at passerby and slouching like a high school drop-out.

“Hey.”

Shiro nudged Keith’s foot with his boot when he got close.

Keith looked up for a moment. Then he dug his hands into his hair and groaned.

“Rough day, huh?”

When Keith only groaned again, Shiro dropped his backpack next to Keith and took a seat next to him on the steps. Keith didn’t always like touch, so Shiro kept his hands hanging between his knees but he tilted his head to show he was listening.

“They just—!” Keith still had his head down and his hands in his hair. “There’s three of them and they keep _building_ on each other. Even Hunk gets in on it! And I know, they can do what they want, _I’m_ the problem, but they keep _going—_!”

“Hey.” Shiro touched his hand down on Keith’s shoulder, squeezing when he didn’t throw him off. “You did good. You got out before you blew up on anyone. That’s progress.”

Keith made some frustrated growling in the back of his throat not quite making it into words.

“You’re all right,” soothed Shiro. “You did good.”

When Keith slumped some but still didn’t respond, Shiro wrapped his arm around his shoulders. “Feeling pretty nonverbal today, huh?”

Keith’s eyes went wide. Then he nodded and slumped against Shiro’s side.

“Ah, that’s all right, kiddo.” Keith used to have nonverbal bouts a lot as a kid (something numerous foster parents _insisting_ he talk hadn’t helped at all). They were less common now, but still flared up sometimes. Shiro hugged him close. “I know it’s hard when the others are loud, but you don’t have to join in. You’re doing just fine.”

Keith hummed, and it wasn’t exactly happy but at least it was no longer so upset. He hid his face in Shiro’s shoulder, and Shiro felt the tension slowly leak out of his body.

He rubbed Keith’s shoulders. “You good to go back to the apartment, or do you need to stay outside a little longer?”

Keith pulled out of Shiro’s arm and shrugged. “…inside I guess.”

“Okay,” said Shiro. Now that Keith was no longer so tense, he turned to the other matter hand. “So…what exactly are the others up to?”

Keith leaned back, a myriad of expressions flashing over his face, before he finally rolled his eyes and groaned.

Still pretty nonverbal then. And no telling what was going on upstairs. Shiro sighed.

“Guess I’ll just have to find out myself.”

Shiro heard the vague, pounding baseline before they even reach the second floor. Meeting Keith’s eyes, he picked up the pace and soon started to make out words.

“…this is Halloween, this is Halloween…”

Shiro opened the door to deafening noise.

“HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN!”

“Hey, Shiro,” said Hunk over Lance and Pidge’s scream-singing.

“ ** _HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN!_** ”

“Guys…” began Shiro, only to realized he wasn’t going to be heard over the impromptu rendition of _Nightmare Before Christmas_. “GUYS!’

“ _La. La. La. LA LA—!_ ”

Shiro gestured frantically at Hunk to turn down the volume.

“LA LA—Hey! What happened?”

“I get that you guys are excited about Halloween, but can we _not_ shake the entire building with it? I don’t think foundations of this place are exactly stable.”

“Oh hey, Shiro!” said Lance looking at the crest of a manic sugar high.

“We improved the speakers!” added Pidge excitedly.

“Oh, nice…” said Shiro, privately thinking how much harder it was going to be to avoid noise complaints from the neighbors now. His inner musings were cut short, though, when got a better look at their living room.

Shiro blinked slowly.

“What _happened_ in here? Did you guys slaughter a unicorn?”

Pidge and Lance burst out laughing. Out of the corner of his eye, Shiro saw Keith edge around the back and slip into their bedroom. Well, at least he wasn’t yelling. None of that explained the explosion of tissue paper and craft supplies scattered across every available surface.

“We’re making Halloween costumes,” said Hunk, holding up the fabric in his lap. “I found this old bathrobe, and I’m turning it into a Jedi robe.”

“I’m going to be a robot,” said Pidge.

“Like you have been _every_ year,” said Lance, grinning and rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, but this year I get to actually make the costume myself. There’s going to light up panels and everything.”

“Terrifying,” said Shiro.

Pidge just grinned.

“And what are you being, Lance?”

Lance’s gigantic grin was worrying. “A pinata!”

“A what?”

“Pinata! See see, I’ve got these old clothes here, and we’re cutting the tissue paper up into itty pieces like this and then I was going to hot glue them all on, but Hunk suggested staples were is _waaaaaay_ easier, and then after I cover everything and do face paint too, it’ll look like this!” Lance held up his progress one pant leg.

_We’re never going to stop finding pieces of tissue paper_ , thought Shiro. Though he did have the admit the texture looked quite a bit like a pinata.

“That is quite the project,” said Shiro.

“Pish, it’s Halloween. Go big or go home!” sang Lance. He rolled his eyes. “I don’t get why Keith was in such a huff about it.”

Shiro sighed. “Go easy on him. He just got overstimulated. He’ll join in when he’s ready. Keith likes Halloween even if he isn’t as loud about it as you guys.”

“It’s the best holiday,” said Hunk easily.

“Yeah, _duh!_ ” said Lance.

“What are you going to be, Shiro?” asked Pidge as he made his way into the kitchen.

Shiro thought of his mountain of homework, the physics midterm next week, and the shift he had to work in two hours. Not to mention their struggling bank account. “Oh, uh. I hadn’t really thought about it yet,” he hedged.

“Oh, come on! You have to dress up, Shiro!” said Lance.

Surprisingly, Hunk joined in. “Halloween is like a family thing.”

Shiro pulled his head out of the refrigerator. “I thought Halloween is the one holiday _not_ about family, and that’s why we liked it.”

“Yeah, but that’s what makes it ours,” said Hunk. “ _Our_ family.”

“You can’t skip out on the family, Shiro!”

“Okay, okay.” Shiro gave up on figuring out a coherent dinner and settled for just drinking milk straight out of the galleon. He set the milk down on the counter. “Tell you what,” he decided. “You guys manage to keep it down enough that the police don’t get called and Keith doesn’t commit murder, and we can watch _Corpse Bride_ when I get off work tonight.”

The three exploded into cheers. “YES YES YES!”

“Oh, wait. We’re probably shouldn’t be yelling that,” realized Lance.

Well, at least they were trying.

As the month progressed, the Halloween spirit only got stronger. Lance and Hunk cut out paper spiders, ghosts, and bats that they taped to the walls, and Shiro even let Pidge buy some of the cheap orange fairy light to string up. True to Shiro’s prediction, Keith got into the Halloween spirit as well—though Lance still found it him to have objections.

“A vampire?!” he cried when Keith came up with his costume. “Seriously, a _vampire?_ How basic is that!”

“It’s _classic,_ ” insisted Keith, pulling his cloak tighter around his shoulders. “It’s a call back to the original meaning of Halloween. Not all of us need to look like rainbow puke.”

“It’s a PINATA!”

“Hey, does this mean we get to hit Lance?”

“ _Pidge_ ,” said Shiro, but she only cackled.

The enthusiasm only grew from there, building to a near physical buzz right up until Halloween itself. And then Shiro made the mistake of taking all four of them grocery shopping.

“So I’m thinking we’ve got to have a _plan_ for trick or treating,” said Lance, standing on the bottom of the shopping cart and rocking back.

“Okay, but can we not knock over the shelves while we’re at it?” said Shiro, tightening his hold on the cart to stop Lance from swinging into a fellow shopper. “Sorry,” he added to the alarmed woman.

Lance paid him no mind, holding on to the front of the cart and leaning back as far as he could. Further down the aisle, Hunk was debating with the store associate about the right way to organize the spices while Pidge and Keith were turning all the boxes for pineapple upside down cake upside down. 

“Do we even need anything from this aisle?” said Shiro, looking around in dismay.

“I don’t know, but good luck getting Hunk away from the spices. ANYWAY—” Lance rocked the cart back and nearly into a small child. “Me and Pidge were talking. The key part of trick or treating is strategy. You have to pick the right neighborhood to get the best loot and—”

The woman he had nearly swung into earlier gave a loud snort. “ _You_ shouldn’t be trick or treating,” she said.

Lance paused in his rocking. “Why not?”

“Trick or treating is for _children_ ,” she said sharply. “Not teenagers. I for one wouldn’t hand out a _Skittle_ if you showed up at my door, and I can guarantee plenty of people feel the same! Leave the trick or treating to the kids. It’s shameful at your age to still be holding on to it.”

Lance didn’t say anything, which was unusual enough, but his lips pressed hard together, nearly shaking. Shiro spotted Hunk, Keith, and Pidge also frozen, worried and watching.

“Surely that’s an exaggeration?” said Shiro hesitantly.

The woman looked him up and down, her eyes lingering on Shiro’s shoulders which felt especially big and uncomfortable under her deepening scowl.

“Oh, were _you_ going to join him?” she said with distain. “Good luck finding anyone who will let you.”

“But… Halloween,” said Lance in a small, pleading voice.

The woman flapped her hand. “Then tweet it or whatever you kids do these days. Now excuse me, I need to get to the flour.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Shiro moved the cart out of her way while Lance hopped off and stared at the floor. Lance wasn’t saying anything, just tugging on the ends of his jacket and looking down. Of all of them, Lance was normally the best at bouncing back after disappointment, but he didn’t seem to be rebounding now.

Hunk, Keith, and Pidge left what they had been doing and gathered around them, expressions upset and worried.

“Does this mean we can’t go?” worried Hunk once the lady had left.

“But I _like_ trick or treating,” said Pidge.

Keith looked as devastated as any of them, but he looked up at Shiro with desperate hope. “Shiro?” he plead.

Not for the first time, Shiro stood the only barrier between them and a world that kept _hurting_ them and utterly helpless to stop it. And he couldn’t even think of how to help because truth was, Shiro was disappointed, too.

The Hell House hadn’t had more going for it, but one of the few _good_ memories came from Halloween: when they managed to escape the oppressive presence of the Zarkons and school and everything else that labeled them as bad and different, running from house to house like any other kid, screaming and laughing and collecting as much candy as they could (and that they’d then hide away in nooks and crannies for when other food wasn't an option. It only now occurred to Shiro that probably wasn't a part of most kids' Halloween traditions.)

They hadn’t been able to celebrate the way they wanted in the three years the system separated them, but they were finally together again. Shiro had been looking _forward_ to it.

“Should we…?” Hunk began, but he didn’t seem to have anywhere to go from there.

Shiro looked around, struggling to come up with a way to stem their bleeding disappointment. “You guys…you go check out. I’ll do the thrift store.”

“Don’t you need us to come with you?” said Lance.

“There probably won’t be anything anyway.” With the Boston fall, they had quickly come to realize none of their Arizona clothes were going to get them through the winter. But turns out the coats were expensive, and affordable ones were hard to come by. “I’ll grab anything that looks promising and meet you at the car.”

“Okay,” said Pidge in an uncharacteristically small voice.

They all looked so crushed _._ Shiro desperately wanted to fix it, but he didn’t know how, and he hated the familiar rush of helplessness that engulfed him. 

“Lance, grab the face paint you wanted,” he said in a last-ditch effort to salvage this. “There’s no reason why we can’t still do costumes.”

“Yeah,” said Lance. But he looked so defeated and un- _Lance_ -like.

Shiro swallowed hard and left the store, hating himself a little for failing to protect them yet again.

It just wasn’t _fair_. Shiro clenched and unclenched his jaw as he walked into the thrift store next door. Maybe not everyone felt the same as the angry lady in the store, but he couldn’t be _sure_ and he didn’t want to get everyone’s hopes up only to get the door slammed in their faces. Literally. Why did she have to go and say that? Why did _anyone_? They’d already had so much of their childhoods stolen from them—why did they have to lose this, too? Did they have to—!

Shiro felt a jump in his jaw, a sign that his temper was getting the better of him. He exhaled through his nose as he headed for the clothing section. Of course, they did. Things didn’t work out for them. That was just how it went. The world constantly seemed to fall apart around them, and Shiro was always the one left to pick of the pieces. But he didn’t know how to sweet-talk or fight or plead his way through this one.

Besides, Shiro had been _excited_. Of course at eighteen, an _adult_ , he’d known he couldn’t actually do the trick or treating, but he’d been looking forward to running around with the rest.

He just—he wanted to give them a chance to be _normal_ , to forget about being the left-behind dregs of society. To remind them they were just as deserving of fun and happiness as anyone else. And he’d failed to even manage that.

_Quit sulking, Shirogane,_ he snapped at himself while he flipped through the picked-over coats, looking for anything newer than the late eighties. _You’re no use to anyone if you’re moping over yourself._

Shiro was so absorbed in his thoughts he missed the small child between the coat racks until he was nearly on top of them. He startled and stumbled away saying, “Sorry, sorry!”

The child didn’t move.

“Are you—?” Shiro took a closer look at the child. They were maybe a head shorter than Pidge with scraggily red hair and their arms straight out.

Arms that actually looked a lot more like two wooden poles now that he looked at it.

Gingerly, Shiro poked the “child” with one finger. It tilted and rocked stiffly. Shiro choked down a relieved laugh. Okay, not a child. Just a strange, shoddily made statue. Kind of creepy, and Shiro had no idea what it was doing in the coat section, but at least not a little kid Shiro had nearly trampled on.

_A kid…_

Shiro stared at the statue, and slowly an idea started to form.

“Uh, Shiro? Why do you have a…” Hunk trailed off, staring at the bundle in Shiro’s arms.

“We’re going trick or treating,” said Shiro.

“We’re what?” said Keith with faint hope.

“We’re going trick or treating,” Shiro repeated. He was buzzing with banked energy while he put the child statue and a few purchases in the truck of his car. “Get in. We only have an hour to get ready.”

Shiro waited until they were home to explain his plan.

“So the problem is we look too old for trick or treating. But I’m thinking Pidge at least can pass as a kid. Especially if we leave her glasses at home.”

“That is true,” admitted Pidge with a sigh. She frowned. “But I don’t want to go alone.”

“And that’s where this come in.” Shiro set down his purchase in the middle of the floor.

“We’ll threaten them with a creepy doll statue?” said Lance.

“Not quite,” said Shiro. “I looked it up, and there’s no actual _rules_ about teenagers not trick or treating—just a lot of arguments between mom blogs. If we look like we have kids we’re trick or treating with, I don’t think anyone will have a problem. So we just need Pidge and _this_ to pass as kids.”

“Keith could probably pass, too,” said Lance. “He’s short enough.”

“Hey!”

“Pidge, how do you feel about putting your hair in pigtails?" said Shiro. "You can keep the rest of your costume, but that would help sell it.”

Pidge sighed. “As much as I’m not looking forward to being baby-talked all night, okay. Fine. I’ll do it for you dumbasses.”

“You probably shouldn’t swear,” commented Hunk. “You know, if you’re going to be a kid.”

Pidge threw up her hands. “Fine. You… dumb butts.”

“Better,” said Lance.

"So all that’s left is figuring out a costume for _this_.” Shiro patted the statue’s head.

Hunk hummed. “We could probably use one of our shirts to make a dress-thing.”

"We have Shiro’s old Chewbacca mask,” said Keith. “That takes care of the face.”

“And it goes with Hunk!” said Lance. “We can make a Jedi Wookie!”

“It’s a plan,” said Shiro. He clapped his hands together. “Everyone get to work. Trick or treating starts at 8:30, and we don’t want to miss it.”

For the first time since the lady at the grocery store, he got four beaming smiles back.

From there, it was a flurry of activity. Keith and Hunk worked on dressing up the fake trick or treater while Lance put the final touches on his costume, rainbow colors from his toes to the pinata-fied beanie on his head, and Shiro painted Pidge’s face in blocks of silver and green to match the robot face she had sketched out. He also painted a dribble of blood coming from the corner of Keith’s mouth that Keith seemed particularly pleased about. Then Hunk helped Pidge into the rest of her costume while Keith took a turn with the face paint.

“But what about you, Shiro?” said Keith from where he had pinned Lance to the living room floor and was holding a paintbrush threateningly above him. “Where’s your costume?”

“It’s here,” said Shiro patting the small bag from the thrift store. Keith narrowed his eyes, and Shiro moved it out of his eyesight. “It’ll only take a me a few minutes.”

“Go get ready then!” said Hunk from where he and Pidge were attaching a pillowcase to the hands of their fake trick or treater. “We’ve got the rest.”

Lance agreed with a thumbs up from the ground. “We’re good, Shiro.”

“Hold still!” snapped Keith. “It’s not going to look like a pinata if all the colors bleed together!”

“Keith, I believe in yo—”

“STOP MOVING!”

Snickering, Shiro picked up the small bag he had picked up from the thrift store and left to get ready.

First order of business was to snag a pair of Hunk’s jeans and then the old canvas jacket no one them quite knew where it had come from. Then he headed for the bathroom and dumped it all on the counter with the items he had bought—crooked lens-less spectacles and temporary hair dye. Shiro pulled out the concealer he had gotten way back when he thought he might be able to cover up his scar. It hadn’t worked and the concealer was too dark anyway, but now he used it to draw on wrinkles on his forehead and under his eyes. He took out the hair dye and sprayed it on until his hair was grey-white like his bangs. Then he pulled on Hunk’s jeans—which were far looser fitting than his own—and the canvas jacket. Shiro took a look at himself in the mirror. It wasn’t the best costume of all time but good enough. All he needed were the white sneakers Keith never wore.

“Hey, Shiro. What—?” Lance nearly choked. “What _are_ you?”

“A dad,” said Shiro simply.

Silence for a moment. Then, pealing laughter.

Shiro pushed the spectacles up his nose. “Someone has to look after you kids,” he said in his best stern voice. More laughter followed that, and Shiro smirked.

“C’mon,” he said. “Trick or treating has started already.”

Shiro pulled up next to a neighborhood park. Lance was right—the best trick or treating was always in the rich neighborhoods. Also, if things went horribly wrong, it would be harder to track them down if they weren’t right next door.

“Okay, everyone ready?” said Shiro as they piled out of the car.

Lance bounced on his toes in his flamboyant pinata suit. “So…what’s the plan?”

Shiro squinted at the house nearest them where he could see three little trick or treaters making their way up the steps.

“We’ll wait for them to close the door,” he decided. “You four sneak up and ring the doorbell. Put Pidge and the fake trick or treater in the front. Try to make it realistic. I’ll stay back in case we need to make a get away.”

He got four sharp nods and grins brimming with determination.

“The other trick or treaters have left. Time to go.”

Shiro stayed back on the sidewalk while the others snuck up to the porch, carrying the fake trick or treater. There seemed to be a scuffle over who had to ring the doorbell, but then Lance punched the button and the door opened.

“TREAT OR TREAT!”

Shiro could practically hear the toothy grin in Pidge’s voice. She must really be hamming it up.

The woman in the doorway was wearing a witch’s hat and a smile. “Oh, what do we have here?” she said as she passed out the candy. “I see a vampire, a robot, some Star Wars, and…uh...”

“I’m a pinata!” said Lance.

The woman laughed. “That’s a good one! Oh, did I miss you, honey?” she added, dropping candy into the fake trick or treater’s bag. “There you go, sweetheart.”

The statue, naturally, kept standing there, its arms out.

Shiro suddenly realized a flaw in their plan: they had figured out how to get the fake trick or treater _in_ but not out to get it _out._

“You still want more? My goodness, you’re a precocious one,” said the woman, dropping more candy into its sack.

Shiro sprinted up to the porch. “Hey, uh, time to go, kiddo,” he said, picking up the statue around the waist.

The statue, being a statue, was stiff as a board and went horizontal like no human child would when Shiro picked it up.

“He's not real?!” cried the woman.

“Time to go,” Shiro repeated.

“Trick or treat!” yelled Hunk as they jumped off the porch.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!” she cried. Though outrage was quickly dying away. “Unbelievable! That completely fooled me!”

Her laughter followed them as they booked it out of the yard.

“That was _brilliant_ , Shiro!” said Lance once they had finally caught their breath.

Let’s do it again,” said Pidge, her eyes bright and shining. Next to her, Keith nodded eagerly.

Shiro set down the fake trick or treater and glanced back at the house where they could still faintly hear the woman laughing. That hadn’t gone exactly how they’d expected, but it hadn’t exactly gone _wrong_ either. He grinned.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”

From there, they got better. Pidge named their trick or treater Rover, and she and Keith got better at hiding it among themselves. They learned that they could each peel off as they got their candy, leaving Rover with its hands out, still asking for more. Shiro’s comedic timing got better, too, catching people _just_ before they figured it out and enjoying the shock and outrage as he carried the obviously fake kid off. They darted from house to house, having more fun than they ever had before.

“Is that a fake trick or treater?” a middle-aged man with a tiny Spiderman strapped to his chest asked Shiro at one street corner.

Shiro glanced down at where Rover was sitting next to his feet. “Um. Yeah,” he said, worried that the man would call them out.

But instead he just laughed. “That’s amazing. Dan! Josie! Come check this out!”

“Not Josie, Dad!” yelled a little girl in a Wonder Woman costume.

“Right. Diana,” sighed the dad. He grinned though as his children came closer. “Look at this. These kids built a fake trick or treater. They’re pulling a prank on the parents!”

“It’s trick _or_ treat, right?” said Hunk. He and the others had gathered around Shiro and the young family, clearly worried they were about to get caught and kicked out.

But again, the dad laughed. “That’s the spirit! Not enough tricks in Halloween these days. Do you mind if my kids join you for a bit?”

“Uh, sure. I mean, I don’t mind,” said Shiro, glancing back at the others. Lance was beaming and Hunk had his special “kids face” on. Pidge looked indifferent.

Keith was more awkward, but he shrugged. “You can come with us,” he said, unusually soft.

“The key is you have to mix Rover in with everyone else then leave one by one,” Pidge told the kids. “Then he stands there until they either figure it out or Shiro goes and picks him up.”

“You kids want to try it?” the dad encouraged his kids.

Wonder Woman and a skinny Captain America looked nervous, but then Hunk smiled and folded them in. “You can stick with me,” he said. “Keith looks scary, but he’s really a softy inside.”

Keith just rolled his eyes.

“Thanks for being cool with this,” Shiro whispered to the dad as the others crept their way to up the driveway of the next house.

“Oh shoot, it’s no problem,” he said, bouncing the baby Spiderman on his chest. “It’s nice to spice Halloween up a little. Though I have to ask, what exactly are you dressed up as?”

“Oh, uh... a dad,” mumbled Shiro, his cheeks heating.

The actual dad howled with laughter.

“It’s sort of an inside joke,” Shiro said, like that would somehow make it better.

“Well, it’s nice of you to dress up and take your friends out on Halloween,” he said.

“Siblings,” Shiro corrected automatically.

The man looked up where Shiro’s teens were arranging everyone on the doorstep, then back at Shiro. “Ah…” he said, and it almost looked like he was catching on to something, but then an old lesbian couple opened the door and the charade started again.

“TRICK OR TREAT!”

“Oh, aren’t you the cutest? Linda, look at these kids…”

The dad and the little gang of superheroes stuck with them for about a block, the kids getting more excited by Rover with each house. Finally, the dad declared it Spiderman’s bedtime, and they parted ways.

“Thank you for letting us tag along with you guys,” he said, grabbing hold of Captain America’s collar before he could jump into the street. “I’ll definitely be telling my wife about this—maybe we’ll make our own Rover next year!”

“Hey, no stealing our idea!” cried Lance.

Keith elbowed him. “They’re allowed to have fun, too.”

“It was nice to meet you, Steve. Diana,” said Hunk, and the little superheroes lit up at their names.

“Uh, happy Halloween,” said Pidge who was probably the only person worse at kids than Keith.

Fortunately, none of them seemed to mind, the kids seeming more interested in pursuing a life-long sugar high as they skipped away.

“Well, that was fun,” smiled Shiro.

“ _Was_ fun??” repeated Lance. “Is fun! C’mon, there’s still more houses to prank!”

Trick or treating was winding down as they made their way back to the car, the shocked outrage of people discovering the fake trick or treater never getting old.

“I think this is the last one,” said Shiro as they neared where their car was parked.

“They’re sitting out on the porch,” said Keith, scoping it out. “How are we going to Rover up without them noticing.”

Shiro stopped at the edge of their lawn and considered. “We’re going to need a distraction.”

“On it,” said Lance.

“You guys sneak Rover up," he said, pointing at Hunk, Pidge, and Keith. Then he threw his hands up—“AAAYIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!”—and took off running circles around the lawn in all his pinata glory.

He drew their attention all right. And it was a good thing the others had the presence of mind to start moving because Shiro was too busy laughing.

One of the men on the porch walked over to the railing. “What—What is that boy doing?”

Lance kept running, now narrating his actions. “Around the tree, over the rock—PARKOUR!”

“Trick or treat!” interrupted Pidge in her smarmiest sweet voice.

“Oh! We got trick or treaters!” said a woman who looked more than a little drunk. She flapped her hand. “Roy, go help them.”

An older man ambled to his feet. “All right, what do we have here?” he mumbled. “Here’s for you…and you…and you… And what’s up with you, little guy?”

“He only likes Snickers,” said Pidge, who’d been coming up with more and more elaborate tales about Rover throughout the night. “He doesn’t like talking, though. It scares him.”

“Oh, well, let’s see if we can dig up some Snickers then,” said the man, rifling through his bowl. “Here’s one. Oh. You still want another, then? Uh…let me see. I think there’s a few more in here…”

He spent a good minute searching for more Snickers for the insatiable Rover while Pidge and Hunk tried valiantly to keep a straight face.

“ _Shiro,_ ” hissed Keith, who’d left the porch first. He jabbed an elbow into Shiro who up until that point had been laughing too hard to do anything else.

“Okay, okay,” said Shiro, choking down his chuckles. He darted up the driveway and between Pidge and Hunk.

“Hey, that’s enough, buddy,” he said to Rover. “Time to go to the next house.” Then he picked Rover up.

The man dropped his bowl of candy.

“Wait.”

While he was sputtering, Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk jumped off the porch.

“That was _FAKE_?!”

“Time to go!” said Shiro as Keith and Lance joined them.

“You—You were the distraction!” cried the man, pointing at Lance. “Wait, come back here! You—You—HOOLIGANS! DON’T JUST RUN OFF!”

“ _Roy_ …”

“YOU STEAL ALL MY SNICKERS AND THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH IT? GET BACK HERE!”

Crying with laughter, they didn’t stop until they reached the car, where they collapsed into a heap on the curb.

“ _That—_ ” gasped Lance between bouts of laughter “—was the _best_ —trick or treating— _ever_.”

“Let’s do it again next year!” said Pidge, her eyes shining.

Shiro looked at where Rover was tipped over against the curb, Chewbacca mask sideways and candy bag fuller than any of them would have expected, new ideas already churning in his mind.

“Yeah,” he said. “We’re _definitely_ doing that again.”

Later that night, they were all sprawled across the floor in Pidge, Lance, and Hunk’s bedroom, watching _Hocus Pocus_ and making themselves sick on candy. Pidge was curled up next to Rover, which was wearing Lance’s pinata beanie. Keith was squished against Hunk who had been voted the arbitrator of Rover’s candy bag, and Lance was flopped over Shiro’s legs. Shiro adjusted so that his knee was no longer digging into Lance’s spine, and Lance leaned back.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Thanks for saving Halloween, Shiro.”

Shiro snorted. “I don’t think I’m responsible for the survival of a national holiday.”

“But you kind of are for ours,” said Hunk.

“You got us all together this year,” said Keith. He shrugged uncomfortably when everyone looked at him. “Just…that’s important, too.”

“Besides, the Rover idea was _genius,_ ” said Pidge.

“To be clear, I didn’t intend prank an entire neighborhood when I thought of it.”

“And yet we did,” said Pidge with a self-satisfied smirk.

Shiro sighed, but he couldn’t stop the grin. “It was fun,” he admitted.

“It was nice to feel like a kid again,” said Hunk. “You know, the good parts.”

Keith and Lance nodded.

“Yeah…”

Shiro leaned back against the bedframe as the Sanderson sisters summoned flying vacuum cleaners. “Yeah, it was good to remember the good parts. And to have all of you around. It’s not Halloween without you guys.”

“Awwww, it’s not Halloween without you either, Shiro!” said Lance in a needlessly simpering voice. Shiro flicked him in the head in retaliation, and Keith chucked a Jolley Rancher at his head.

“No.” he said. “Too mushy.”

“Too _sweet_ ,” grinned Hunk as the rest of them groaned.

Lance threw a candy bar at him, and Pidge took the opportunity to shower them all in Skittles. From there, it devolved from there into an all-out candy war.

Hunk had been right, Shiro thought as he snatched Keith’s candy bag to upend over Pidge’s head.

Halloween really was the best holiday.

**Author's Note:**

> The fake trick or treater actually comes from my aunt's family who built one when their kids were young. They invited my sister and I to go trick or treating with them when we were in college, and it was the most fun trick or treating I've ever had. I hope I captured at least a tenth of the experience.
> 
> If you enjoyed this, please let me know in the kudos or the comments! Or you can come bug me on my [tumblr](https://mckinlily.tumblr.com)!


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